Mother’s Day Guest Post: Making Fitness a Way of Life

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers, grandmothers, stepmoms, daughters, and any other special Moms!! Celebrate the day with love and thanks to anyone who has been a special Mom in your life.

Let me introduce myself. I am Georgia, Athena’s mother, and I am very proud and honored to write this for Fitness and Feta on Mother’s Day.

Athena and I share a passion for health and fitness that plays an important part in our family life and our relationship with each other. Fitness can be a wonderful bonding experience between mothers and daughters, friends, spouses, and significant others. I have chosen to say a few words on how fitness has had such an impact on my life and how I keep it such a big part of my life, especially after the big 50!

I started exercising after my second child was born when someone asked me when I was expecting – and my son was already 6 months old! Oh, no, how depressing was that! I went home and cried until I decided to do something about it. I joined Jazzercise, an exercise class I thought I could fit into my daily life, with two small children at home. Since I love to dance, it was a perfect fit for me. It became my passion and to this day, 24 years later, I still attend the classes at least once per week. At some point, Athena started attending with me. Along with her friends and their mothers, it was a wonderful thing to share.

Athena eventually encouraged me to branch out a bit and that is when I joined her in a weights/abs/pilates class. I LOVED IT!! It was frightening at first – we had a lot of laughs over how long it took me to get onto that Swiss
ball. It took a long time, but as I got stronger, I became more confident. These classes have become the major part of my workouts. Now I have added Zumba –love to dance – and kickboxing. Most weeks, I alternate weight training with a cardio class, with one or two days off per week. Occasionally I have taken some of Athena’s classes at the Y. I am very proud to say that I can keep up in her classes at my age!

My words of wisdom are to find something you absolutely love to do. Once that happens, you will stay with it. Be open to change and challenge yourself. Without encouragement from Athena, I may not have tried the different types of classes. Incorporate variety – it really does work your body in different ways and you will see results. Be creative and find little ways to work fitness into your daily life, whether it is walking, taking the stairs, working in the yard, and my personal favorite, parking the car far from my destination. I have also developed lasting friendships at the gym. We encourage each other to go and push each other through the class. Fitness has become my number one activity in my life and I plan my weeks around it.

I feel better, stronger, and more fit today than I did 30 years ago. The positive feelings I get from working out help me through my daily life. Every day I look forward to working out at the gym and love how I feel after it’s done. Thank you to all my fitness instructors throughout the years for helping me get to where I am today!

Happy Mother’s Day, everyone!

What type of fitness do you absolutely love to do? What’s your fitness story? What are little ways you challenge yourself, are creative, and incorporate variety? Leave a comment for my mom!